Two Sides to Every Cat Story
It’s not often I get flummoxed by a cat book. There are thousands of cat books written from every conceivable angle, genre and style and we’ve read our fair share. Usually it’s simple: you either love, like or not.
With The Nine Emotional Lives Of Cats by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, I eagerly tore into it. Written in 2002, hot on the heels of his wildly successful Dogs Never Lie About Love, I expected more from the prolific author given his background as a former Sanskrit scholar, Projects Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives and avid animal activist. Masson’s transplanted life from California to New Zealand with wives and babies in tow, equally intrigued. He added five young cats to his family and spend a year recording their behavior via nine “emotions”: narcissism, love, contentment, attachment, jealousy, fear, anger, curiosity and playfulness. Some chapters work better than others. Some are contrived to fit into Masson’s psycho-socio-logic. In the spirit of generosity, I believe there are two sides to every story.
At times the book works and the reader cheers on the writer, as he goes forand daily walks with his pride of cats or goes running on the beach, wild and free. He makes the case for indoor cats divorced from nature as being imprisoned or stunted from their true nature. As someone who goes to great lengths giving my cats the best of both indoor and outdoor worlds, I agree with with his philosophy but his methods. He makes no allowances for practicality. His cats freely come and go bed hopping and bird killing in the neighborhood willy nilly.
As I’m reading, my inner calculator is clicking: this was written ten years, would his cats still be alive? How had his experiment turn out? As soon as I finished reading, I Googled his website and found him sans his middle name, still living in New Zealand with a photo of him on the beach with dogs. The same beach where he famously ran with his cats. No blog post archives mentioned cats. The author has now written nine books and turned vegan. More dog photos. Whoops, here we are: They live on a beach in Auckland with three cats and Benjy the Failed Guide Dog (the hero of Jeff’s latest book). No mention of which three cats or any update on them. One of the nine emotions formed in the pit of my stomach. Can you guess which one?
The Nine Emotional Lives Of Cats by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
288 pages, published in 2002 by Ballantine Books
Rating: 2 Paws.
9 Comments
Caren Gittleman
nausea?
Oui Oui
Guess we’ll pass on that one. We’re rather read someone who truly cares about cats (like you) rather than some one who tries to fit them into their way of thinking. We got a sinking feeling about that guy’s poor cats, too. It might be hard to write unpleasant truths about something, but we appreciate it.
daniela
Gave that book a try a long time ago when it first came out.
Also not very impressed.
I had also the feeling reading than rather than reading about really wanted or loved pets, it was about his “test subjects”. He did not seem to mind very much when one of the cats picked another family to live with.
But although the style was detached it was also not very scientific.
Hope he cares more for the cats he has now.
Brian
Hmmmmmmm, we may just have to check that one out!
Nadbugs
I love your thoughtful insightfulness. I had the same response to this book. Can I tell you how tired I am of romance substituting for discernment? That was the sense I had, when reading this book. The guy is well-known for a reason, and I suppose it’s because there’s much of merit in his perceptions. But the overall tone of the book, the overall organization or point I mean perhaps, didn’t ring true. I didn’t buy the romance when I read the book years ago, though I was torn between wanting to and not really feeling it — before I knew one durn thing about the complexities involved in our relationship with these other beings. And now that I have observed a thing or two, thanks in large part to others more experienced than I in our wonderful CB, I am having this moment of clarity, thanks to you, about why I found myself with a sinking, sad feeling in the pit of my stomach when I finished it. The book just wasn’t any help at all in what I was going through, in welcoming my first anipal into my home from the streets. At the time, I thought self-destructively, my problem was my own limitations, ineptitude, and confusion. Now I see things differently, and your review sheds light on why. Great job.
boomermuse
Thank-you. It was difficult to write.
@Ingrid, thanks for you insights.
Ingrid King
I really wanted to like this book when I read it years ago, but just couldn’t. Aside from the fact that it was poorly written, it really does not “journey into the feline heart.” It’s more a memoir of the author’s cats than an exploration of cat’s fascinating nature. There’s very little solid research, and a lot of the author’s ego in the book. For me, the book was a huge disappointment.
CATachresis
Well, Layla, I guess it wasn’t narcissism!!! A bit of a strange guy, I would say. Well done on doing your research x
Max the Quilt Cat
Thanks for the great book review. Have a wonderful day.
pawhugs, Max